Creative Metropoles, a good instrument for creative industries

Culture and business development professionals from 11 European cities are carrying out the project Creative Metropoles with the aim of register the current situation of Creative Industries in partner cities, meaning how public support for Creative Industries is structured, which actors there are or which supports measures are existing.

The cities participating on this project are Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Birmingham, Helsinki, Oslo, Riga, Stockholm, Tallinn, Vilnius and Warsaw.

To inquire more about this idea, EFP could talk with Jaanus Vahesalu, Manager of the International Projects in Tallinn City Enterprise Board, who explained how Creative Metropoles works and who are investing money for that.

Creative Metropoles has received 2.44 million euro from INTERREG IVC program, which “is focused on interregional Europe-wide cooperation, with main objective to improve the effectiveness of regional development policies in the areas of innovation, the knowledge economy, the environment and risk prevention as well as to contribute to the economic modernization and increased competitiveness of Europe”.

According with Mr. Vahesalu, “The exchange, sharing and transfer of policy experience, knowledge and good practices will contribute to achieving the objectives that INTERREG IVC program pursues”.

Taking this into practice, “Creative Metropoles will prepare exchange experiences which will take place in the form of joint events and partner-to-partner study visits, and will be started in 2010”, says Vahesalu.

“Project outputs include a consolidated mapping report of creative industries in the participating cities, 3 joint experience exchange events and 22 partner-to-partner study visits, 6 local strategies for structuring public support and 6 strategies for developing of creative city districts”.

Creative Monopoles had already celebrated an exchange event in Warsaw Poland. According with Vahesalu “Experience exchange event of CREATIVE METROPOLES project in Warsaw was the first time where detailed research findings were presented on three out of five research themes defined by the project”.

More info about this project, which will run until September 2011, can be found in their webpage www.creativemetropoles.eu